Recollections of Super Bowls Past

It is nothing short of amazing how the Super Bowl has evolved over the years. It has gone from the novel idea of a title game between the original NFC against the upstart AFC (with plenty of empty seats at that first game) to the most-watched event on television and a de facto national holiday some 45 years later.

I watched my first Super Bowl with my dad when I was five years old. I remember several things about that day. It was the first time I saw the team I would root for the rest of my life, the Dallas Cowboys. It was also the first time I cooked my own steak on a grill (under close supervision, of course). Most important, it was the first of more than 30 Super Bowls I would watch with my father. It was a tradition that both of us took seriously. Even when I relocated across the country for work and there were years when I could not make it home for Christmas, I always found a way to come home to watch the big game with my dad. This culminated a few years ago when our hometown Arizona Cardinals came within a minute of pulling off one of the great upsets in Super Bowl history just a few months before my father passed away.

I have tried to carry on the tradition since then. Every year I host a party for friends and put out a great spread. This year bratwurst and sauerkraut will be going in one crockpot, and slow-cooked barbecued pork ribs in the other, with jalapeno cornbread warming in the oven. The Super Bowl is much more than a game. It is a time to gather with friends and family and celebrate an American tradition.

It also is about two other American traditions: food and advertising. We stuff ourselves to the gills and watch iconic brands spend more than $3 million a spot to roll out their very best ad work, kicking off a national advertising competition of its own -- a game within the game. Here are two picks inspired by those two traditions.

Following are four reasons Nathan's Famous (NATH) is a long-term bargain at just under $42 a share:

● I equate Nathan's and its hot dogs more with my beloved New York Yankees than I do with football, but that is changing as the company gains wider distribution for its products. It recently cut a deal with Smithfield Foods (SFD) that will greatly expand Nathan's distribution in early 2014.

● For a company with less than $200 million in market capitalization, Nathan's has huge brand recognition, especially in the Northeast. It's very likely the company will eventually become a buyout candidate for a larger player in the space.

● As of the September quarter, the company had a solid balance sheet with almost 15% of its market capitalization in net cash. It has also reduced share count from more than 6 million shares to a little more than 4 million shares over the last few years.

● For the nine months through the December quarter, non-GAAP earnings rose 30% year over year, while sales climbed 9%. The company also owns and operates five of its 304 restaurants (299 are franchised) as of September, so there is plenty of growth opportunity in that space as well.

● The TV network is broadcasting this year's Super Bowl. All ad spots are sold, with the average 30-second spot garnering an incredible $3.8 million.

● CBS recently announced it is spinning off its outdoor billboard business as a $6 billion real estate investment trust, which is a solid catalyst for unlocking shareholder value for this piece of the business. It also should allow the rest of CBS to get a higher market multiple.

● The spinoff will reduce CBS's advertising revenue to 50% of overall sales from the prior 60%. The company is becoming more of a content provider. That is where the action is, given rising demand for content from new players, such as Netflix (NFLX).

● CBS goes for a reasonable 14x forward earnings, even after the recent share run-up. Management recently upped its dividend by 12%, and it has approximately $3 billion left on a stock repurchase program, which should shrink the share float by around 10% at current prices.